A controversial bill is being pushed through the National Assembly that will allow untitled land within 200 meters of the coast, which previously was not able to be privately owned, to be titled and sold.
Under current law, untitled land within 200 meters of the coastal high tide mark, including land on islands, could only be developed by concession for tourism projects.
It is not known how much land would become available if the bill is approved. The National Program for Land Administration (PRO.N.A.T.) has just initiated a survey of the country’s coastlines and islands to determine the extent of the property. This project will start in the provinces of Los Santos and Bocas Del Torro.
At the first meeting of the National Assembly’s Finance Committee, Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development Adonai Ríos recommended that the bill be delayed because it is a complicated issue that must be analyzed in depth.
However, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Legislator Pedro Miguel González, ordered that the bill be presented for initial approval no later than Thursday of this week.
organizations, including organizations of Panamanian farmers, labor unions, human rights groups, etc. The primary beneficiaries will be individual ROP holders, (though there is nothing in the bill to exclude foreign ROP holders), be they small holders or “investors,” from benefiting if they have a legitimate ROP claim.)
The sale price was set at $6 per hectare, a rate that is far below the actual value of the property. This was done so as to allow people with claims on property to not be shut out from potential ownership due to high prices.
“We know that, on the coasts and islands, a lot of the land is controlled by wealthy farmers, but the idea is to remove subjectivity from the process in determining whom the title should be given to,” said Nadia Moreno, director of Agrarian Reform (Reforma Agraria).
Rolando Armuelles, director of PRO.N.A.T., noted that the price can not be calculated based on market value because the state is only an administrator of these lands.
“It’s different than what happened with the reverted areas,” said Armuelles.
The bill is an attempt to resolve some of the thousands of legal conflicts that currently exist over land issues.
In some cases, possessory rights on properties have been issued on parcels that already had occupants, which alone has generated numerous complaints.
According to lawyers consulted on the subject, these possessory rights should be declared illegal because the only body authorized to issue them was the Department of Agrarian Reform.
The situation has generated concern among people who have these problems because it is in the hands of the Department of Agrarian Reform to ultimately determine who has the right to purchase the parcels.
This is the case with the Domínguez family, which has a title on a beachfront parcel in Las Tablas that dates from 1935.
Now the property claimed by the Domínguez family houses more than 10 families who claim to have possessory rights to the lands, a group that includes Legislator Olivares Frías.
“This issue concerns us because we are fighting against invaders who have political power, and anything can happen,” said Abel Domínguez.
Erick Jiménez, a former director of Agrarian Reform, acknowledged that this is a very sensitive issue that must be handled very carefully.
He indicated that many problems have been caused by local authorities who ignored the law.
“They have ordered evictions of poor occupants to benefit private interests without having the power to do so,” Jiménez said.
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